German Town Law - Eastward Colonization

Eastward Colonization

German town law was frequently applied during the Ostsiedlung of Central and Eastern Europe by German colonists beginning in the early 13th century. Because many areas were underpopulated or underdeveloped, local rulers offered urban privileges to peasants from western Germany to induce them to immigrate eastward. Some towns which received a German law charter were based on pre-existing settlements, while others were constructed anew by colonists. Many towns were formed in conjunction with the settlement of nearby rural communities, but the towns' urban rights were jealously guarded. Initially German town law was applied only to ethnic Germans, but gradually in most localities all town-dwellers were regarded as citizens, regardless of ethnic origin.

Lübeck law spread rapidly among the maritime settlements along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and was used in northern Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, and parts of Pomerelia and Warmia. It formed the basis of Riga law in Riga, used in the lands of the Livonian Order in Livonia, Estonia, and Courland.

Magdeburg law was popular around the March of Meißen and Upper Saxony and was the source of several variants, including Neumarkt-Magdeburg law (Środa Śląska), used extensively in Upper Silesia, and Kulm law, used in the territory of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and along the lower Vistula in Eastern Pomerania. Other variants included Brandenburg, Litoměřice, and Olomouc law.

Litoměřice law and codes based on that of Nuremberg, such as Old Prague and Cheb law, were introduced into Bohemia during the reign of King Wenceslaus I, while German colonists introduced Brünn (Brno) and Olmütz (Olomouc) law in Moravia. South German law, broadly referring to the codes of Nuremberg and Vienna, was used in Bavaria, Austria, and Slovenia, and was introduced into the Kingdom of Hungary during the rule of King Béla IV. Jihlava law was a variant used frequently by mining communities in Bohemia, Moravia, the mountains of Slovakia, and Transylvania. Other town laws were only suitable for or were modified to fit local conditions, such as Głubczyce, Görlitz, Goslar, Lüneburg, Lwówek Śląski, Nysa, Spiš, and Székesfehérvár laws.

Resulting from the reign of King Casimir III of Poland, numerous towns were chartered with Neumarkter law throughout the Kingdom of Poland in the 14th century, especially in Masovia, Galicia, and Volhynia. Many Transylvanian Saxon settlements in Transylvania, especially in the regions of Altland, Burzenland, and Nösnerland, received South German law in the 14th century.

In the 15th century, many towns in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were chartered with the Neumarkter law used in much of Poland, although this was done through the duplication of Polish administrative methods instead of German colonization. In the 16th century Muscovy granted or reaffirmed Magdeburg rights to various towns along the Dnieper acquired from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the Partitions of Poland, Magdeburg law continued to be used in western Imperial Russia until the 1830s.

It is important to keep in mind that although many towns outside of the Holy Roman Empire had significant German populations, in some cases a town being a "German city" referred to its legal system based on German law, not necessarily meaning it had a German population. Especially in Eastern Europe, most towns had minimal German populations, if any at all.